This invention relates in general to taxidermy fish skin filling, and in particular to a lightweight body insert element used in filling a fish skin.
In taxidermy fish skin filling, to avoid excessively heavy specimens, it is common to use a lightweight body insert element slightly smaller than the fish body itself, which element fills the major and central space of the fish skin cavity to be filled, the remaining annular space about said body insert element being filled with a plastic putty material, so that the insert piece and the putty together substantially duplicate the size and shape of the fish body to give the final desired shape and size to the specimen when the fish skin is sewn together along the back side of the specimen.
It is known to make such a lightweight body insert piece by carving it from a solid block of cellular material such as styrofoam, or by making a cloth sack and filling it with particles of lightweight material. In either case, considerable skill and time is required to produce the insert piece; and particularly so to produce an insert piece curved so as to have the head end and tail end thereof out in front of the midportion thereof, to facilitate an attractive and realistic appearing fish specimen mounted on a wall plaque with the back of the midportion against the plaque and the head and tail of the fish specimen out front from the plaque.
Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to provide a lightweight fish body insert piece which may be easily made to controlled size and shape without requiring special skill or a great deal of time. It is another object of my invention to provide such an easily and quickly made fish body insert piece which can be easily bent into the desired curved shape with the head and tail ends thereof out front from the midportion thereof.